Jury selection scheduled at NY slain runner retrial

March 11, 2019

FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2016, file photo, mourners carry the casket of Karina Vetrano from St. Helen's Church following her funeral in the Howard Beach section of the Queens borough of New York. Jury selection is expected to start Tuesday, March 11, 2019, in the retrial of Chanel Lewis, accused of killing Vetrano. (Steven Sunshine/Newsday via AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Jury selection is expected to start Tuesday at the retrial of a man accused of killing a runner near her family’s New York City home.

Chanel (shuh-NEHL’) Lewis was accused of killing 30-year-old Karina Vetrano as she ran on a park trail in Howard Beach, Queens, in August 2016.

Prosecutors say Vetrano was sexually abused and strangled. Her father found her body.

Lewis’ first trial ended in a hung jury in November.

The Legal Aid Society stresses that Lewis “is presumed innocent.”

It says jurors must scrutinize the accuracy and reliability of statements police say they obtained from the defendant, and the reliability of DNA evidence.

Legal Aid also notes that prosecutors have a “burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”